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The cryptocurrency market cap shed $50 billion on Thursday as the result of a widespread market correction that forced a myriad of prominent coins into double-digit percentage declines.

Cryptocurrency Market Cap Endures $50 Billion Decline

Yesterday, the cryptocurrency market cap recovered back to $600 billion after last week’s severe correction, but today’s pullback dropped it well below that mark. At present, the combined value of all cryptocurrencies is $550 billion, which represents a single-day decline of more than eight percent.

Source: CoinMarketCap

The correction appears to be tied to a report that South Korea — one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency markets — is preparing to enforce a ban on anonymous cryptocurrency trading in an attempt to cool off the markets and prevent money laundering. Korean regulators have also prepared a list of new regulations targeted specifically at bitcoin exchanges based in the country. While some analysts believe South Korea’s increased oversight of cryptocurrency markets as a bullish signal in the long-term, it will inevitably lead to short-term volatility.

Bitcoin Price Drops Below $14,000

Against this backdrop, the bitcoin price led a widespread cryptocurrency retreat, plunging as low as $13,145 on Bitfinex after recovering as high as $16,500 earlier in the week. At present, the bitcoin price is trading at $13,667, an 11 percent pullback from its Wednesday level. Bitcoin now has a market cap of about $229 billion.

Bitcoin Price Chart

Ethereum Price Dives 10 Percent

The ethereum price posted a similar performance, dropping about 10 percent on Bitfinex to reduce its price to $673. Ethereum’s market cap is now worth roughly $65 billion, a nearly $20 billion decrease from the all-time high it set earlier this month.

Ethereum Price Chart

Ripple Price Fights Against Current

As usually happens, the downturn hit the altcoin markets hard, and the total altcoin market cap dropped by $23 billion. Altogether, nine of the top 10 cryptocurrencies experienced double-digit percentage price decreases for the day, although there was one notable exception.

Cryptocurrency Market Cap Charts

Amidst a sea of red, the ripple price managed to make a slight advance, rising about one percent to $1.13 on Bitfinex. Ripple’s global average was much-higher due to intense demand from Korean traders, enabling the ripple price to hit an all-time high before pulling back to its present level. At the time of writing, ripple had a market cap of $44 billion, enabling it to slip past a plunging bitcoin cash.

Ripple Price Chart

Now ranked fourth, the bitcoin cash price endured a 16 percent blow that forced its market cap below the $40 billion mark. At present, bitcoin cash is priced at just $2,364.

The litecoin price declined by 13 percent to $242, while the IOTA’s 18 percent correction was the worst among top 10 cryptocurrencies.

The dash price fell by 15 percent, placing it just six dollars above the $1,000 mark, and EOS dropped by more than 16 percent to $7.67. NEM and monero each saw their prices decline by about 12 percent, rounding out the top 10.

Josiah is a former ancient and medieval literature teacher. He has been writing about cryptocurrency since 2014, and his work has been cited in Business Insider, NPR, and Yahoo! Finance. He lives in rural North Carolina with his wife and son. Email him directly at josiah.wilmoth(at)ccn.com.